PROGRAM

Domestic violence embodies how the personal is political.  In June of this year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed an immigration appeals court ruling that granted asylum to a Salvadoran woman who said she had been sexually, emotionally and physically abused by her husband. The intersection of the fraught and complex process of seeking asylum intertwined with domestic violence is both lightening rod and reality.  In this panel, four women who are on the front lines of supporting asylum seekers at the intersection of local and global will share their experiences doing advocacy, legal and activist work in court, at the US border and in European refugee camp settings.

Ana Maria Bazan, a community-based lawyer in solo practice who represents asylum seekers, will provide insight into the impact of the Sessions ruling with two cases, before and after, that she argued, as well as her experience as a Latina woman immigration lawyer; Amanda Doroshow, a lawyer with Her Justice, and Prathiba Desai, a lawyer with Empire Justice, will describe their work together with asylum seekers in the detention center Dilley, Texas for whom domestic violence is intimately braided with other immediate dangers; and Arzo Wardak, activist and writer, will share her on-the-ground experiences working with refugee women and children in European refugee camps as well as her role in highlighting refugee rights with congressional candidate, Dr. Nadia Hashimi.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Hunter College and the Public Policy Program and Human Rights Program at Roosevelt House.